Gridlock Sam, Killer Cars, and the Future of the City

Sam Schwartz

Author and former New York City traffic commissioner

Sam Schwartz is the legendary former Traffic Commissioner of New York City, credited with coining the word “gridlock” during the 1980 transit strike, earning him the moniker “Gridlock Sam.” In this episode, he talks about his new novel Autokill, a thriller the New York Times describes as a “nail-biter,” about a plot to turn self-driving cars into weapons. He also discusses the claims the autonomous vehicle industry is making and why they deserve scrutiny, and how all of it fits in with a historic but ongoing struggle between the visions of Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs. Plus, he offers a piece of advice to New York’s new mayor that anyone who cares about cities will want to hear.

INTERVIEWED ON: May 27th, 2026

Books discussed:

Autokill by Sam Schwartz & Carry Pepper

Driverless cars race to kill in a thriller from “Gridlock Sam” Schwartz, who “knows everything about how cars and people don't get along,” with Cary Pepper (New York Times Book Review).

No One at the Wheel by Sam Schwartz

The country's leading transport expert describes how the driverless vehicle revolution will transform highways, cities, workplaces and laws not just here, but across the globe.

The Power Broker by Robert Caro

A modern American classic and winner of the Pulitzier Prize, this galvanizing biography of Robert Moses reveals not only the saga of one man’s incredible accumulation of power but the story of his shaping (and mis-shaping) of twentieth-century New York.

The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs

Thirty years after its publication, The Death and Life of Great American Cities was described by the New York Times as “perhaps the most influential single work in the history of town planning.”